known. to all of my brothers and sisters, all eight siblings, their husbands and wives and nieces nephews and friends god bless you all. they were out on the street ntil 8:00 tonight. there are literally hundreds of staffers, but no staffer has been at my side longer and in more of the toughest moments and the most joyful moments than norma jane. norma jane. get up here, norma jane.

>> you all know the story. we met when we were 17 years old and she hasn't stopped bossing me around since, all right? and to my current chief of staff, a wonderful promising oung leader, don craven. and when our campaign needed a new direction we reached over and stole one of the best or borrowed one of the best staffers from mitch landrieu, ryan burney. where are you? yan. so i want to thank all staffers, literally over a hundred, but also the louisiana democratic party that never left our side.

karen carter peterson. what an amazing, amazing young woman. and to all, to congressman richmond who has been with us and congratulations to him who won in the primary and the entire leadership. we have elected officials on the stage tonight. there are too many to mention but i can promise you there is a deep and extraordinary bench of young democratic leaders in this state ready to lead and ready to carry on. now, just briefly on a very sad note, if i could have just a moment. we had over 3,000 people out working today. and like we have been working every day for 18 months. and a young woman that had just started working with us but her oldest sister works with the

mayor of shreveport was fatally struck by an automobile while she was canvassing today. so we want to acknowledge her and her family tonight and we have all been saddened, our hearts are broken. and her family, of course, is in mourning, but karen carter is with them tonight. let me briefly say that it has been nothing but a joy to serve this state for over 34 years. when my amazing father ran for mayor and even prior to that, 44 years ago, he put a great coalition of progressive men and women together from all walks of life, from different racial backgrounds, he fought for openness and opportunity and freedom for all and access

to the middle class and security and justice and fairness. we have together built that same coalition and it is obvious in this room tonight. we have always, always known what we were fighting for. a stronger state. a state more committed to justice. openness and opportunity. regardless of where you were born, what zip code you were born into, or the color of your skin, we may not have won tonight, but we most certainly have won some extraordinary victories. we have stood shoulder to shoulder to secure our coast. to find for the first time in our state's history a robust stream of revenue that will come into this state long after we are gone. $250 million a year. >> to not only protect our great industries but also our unique and amazing culture that is so worth preserving and so orth fighting for.

and that was a tough fight. some people thought it was impossible and many people tried but the group in this room, my supporters, all of you and our staff made that happen. we have three major military bases in louisiana. barksdale air force base, fort polk one of the greatest training centers anywhere in the world, and bellchase right here in this region. we have made them stronger. we have built them better. and they are flourishing because of our commitment. >> the work that many of us have done for orphans in america, all over the world, strengthening the foster care system and saying clearly that every child deserves a a forrier family and a place -- forever family and a place to call home. together we have also fought a good fight and it is no over yet for healthcare because --

>> to have a strong work force, to have a strong workforce to lift our state and move it forward and to lift our nation forward we have to have a healthy workforce. we have to have a way for people no matter where they work or how they work to be able to have an access to doctors, to nurses, to people that can keep them healthy. they can have security when they sleep at night knowing their children can have access and if they get stricken with cancer or heart disease or diabetes they can't be thrown off the insurance rolls anymore. this is something to be proud of. and i'm glad we fought for t. we are in a hotel tonight that is named after one of the great leaders of our country, a great nail, the roosevelt. i hope you saw that recent story of their life and their contribution.

one of my very favorite quotes from teddy roosevelt is the quote about the critic. it is not the critic who counts. the credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena whose face is marred by the cut and sweat and blood and strives valiantly and errs and comes up short but because there is no effort without error and shortcoming but who does actually strive to do the deeds, who spends themself on a worthy cause and in the end he knows high achievement at who at worst if he fails fails by doing greatly so that his place shall never be with the cold and timid souls no know neither defeat or victory. for 34 years we fought for some mazing things. >> and tonight, honestly, i can tell you all it has been a joy.

it has been the joy is in the journey and the satisfaction and reward is in the fight. if you wan to spend your life in a worthy cause choose something that takes longer than your life to aheave and then you know it is worth fighting for. when i look at my young children when you look at my grandson, when i look at the young staffers that are out here, and i have seen you work like i have out in the fields and on the streets and on the farms and big cities and the little towns, talking with voters, but more than that listening to the voters about their hopes, their aspirations. it has been a great privilege to be able to represent them, to fight for them in washington. tonight, we have so much to be proud of. a record of courage, honest create equities and integrity. and delivering for this state when it mattered the most in some of our darkest hours after katrina, rita, gustav, ike and he b.p. oil spill.

so the joy has been in the fight. it has been a blessing. a fight worth waging. louisiana will always be worth fighting for. may god always bless us, bless our nation. we thank god for the democracy that we have, for the right of people to vote. we honor and accept the decision tonight but i cannot tell you all and my family how proud we are to have made a big difference every day for many deck aids and we will continue to do so. thank you so much. god bless.

>> whoa. where did all y'all come rom? this victory belongs to you.

thank you! >> this victory happened because people in louisiana voted for a government which serves us but does not tell us what to do. thank you all. >> think about it. on november 4 the american people sent a message. they sent message that they did not the like the direction our country was going in. now, if you in this room, our state is the exclamation mark on that message. we echo that that we want our country to go in a conservative direction. >> patience has the power not a bureaucrat.

where we have no shame in using america's natural resources to create better jobs for working amilies. and where we the people have the power and not the federal overnment. you have sent that message. thank you very much. >> i got a lot of people to thank here. start off with the staff and volunteers. yes! now we didn't just have people in louisiana. we had alaskans. people from connecticut. massachusetts. we had alabamaians, floridians, texans, oklahomans. whoa. people from idaho. owa.

people from states i didn't know existed. this was an american victory. thank you all again. and a special shout out to the campaign team that has busted it to make sure that the louisiana machine did better than the obama turnout machine. hoa. and speaking of shoutouts, senator david vitter and wendy help us from the very beginning. just driving the message so a big shoutout for senator itter. paul hollis. where are you, man? >> right over here. > and colonel maynese.

as he said, this is not about either of us it is about our country. and both of these men considered running orange and both of them ended up coalescing in the conservative movement because it is not about one of us. it is about the future of our country. so thanks to those two uys. >> gilbert growing the party. hoa! congressman angel who grew the party. thank my family. my mother and my mother in law.

this is my son. he couldn't make it today so -- we love him. thank my mother and mother-in-law who are at home watching. my daughters. my wife. my grandchild. my brothers, my extended family. wow. oh, my gosh. all of you. we could not -- laura and i could not have done this without your support, without your prayers, your contributions, your work, your sign waving, putting on bumper stickers, wearing red tags. you have made this happen for the last two years. i received a call from senator landrieu and graciously she congratulated me and wished my family well and senator landrieu should be thanked and we all do for her service to our state and our country. my message to those who support

senator landrieu is that i don't care that you voted for senator landrieu, i am here to serve you, too. we can can unite as a state and as a country. we got a lot of of challenges f anybody hasn't notice. my commitment to you is to listen and learn from you so that we together can address those challenges for our state and for our country. because again, as the colonel said, it is not about us, it is about the united states of america. each of you in this room cares about our country deeply. i am so honored to be the person you elected to express hose concerns.

we have got lots of work to do in the future but tonight is a ight to celebrate. so god bless you -- i'm sorry? >> by the which, gisele. i get a robo call in spanish, probably cost me votes. pulpit gisele. its' her fault if it didn't turn out. god bless you. god bless louisiana. god bless the united states of america. thank you once more. boom! > thank you.

>> next live your calls and commenths on "washington journal." after that "newsmakers" with linda sanchez and then a house hearing on the president's immigration plan with homeland ecurity secretary jay johnson. >> ann compton on her over 40 years covering the white house and the administrations of gerald ford through barack obama. >> we sat and watched him listen to a group of second graders go through their drill and andy card came and interrupted the president. whipsrd to him. i was stunned. nobody interrupts the president even in front of second graders. the president stood and said that he had to go and he went into a side room. and then we heard, we discovered that it was two planes down -- two plane crashes in new york.

ari fleischer came out to the pool. we were now out in the parking lot and said stay right here the president will come talk to the pool. i said no there are live cameras in the cafeteria. the president has to speak there. he didn't want to scare the children. he said it's an apparent terrorist attack and i must return to washington. we raced to the plane. we were pushed aboard quickly the door was slammed and then the pentagon was hit. >> tonight at 8:00 eastern and pacific. >> this morning university of louisville law professor talks about her experiences writing the curriculum to train police how to interact with youth. it is being used in los angeles, milwaukee, and san francisco. then the hill reporter cory bennett discusses how we can protect ourselves from online hacking. and later dane eegly who chaired the nast's hostage working group talks about the president's review of the process the united states uses

to try to recover americans taken hostage overseas. as always, we will take your calls and you can join the conversation on facebook and twitter. "washington journal" is next. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2014] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] host: good morning. the republicans have added to caucus this weekend with bill cassidy. they will hold 154 seats when they reconvene in january. congress is back in session tomorrow to work on a spending plan for the rest of the fiscal year. it could be the final week of the lame-duck session. the president is hosting the

arteries tonight. and on tuesday, mr. obama travels to nashville to talk about immigration. with last week's grand jury decision in new york not to a white police officer, is posing newspaper this question we want to get your calls. the numbers are on your screen. a u can also join in on conversation, many of you already have on our facebook page. headline this morning -- congressman bill cassidy in what has been called a landslide. is 14 rgin of victory

points for cassidy. again, the headline is -- cassidy wins. and headline we want to focus on this morning -- race relations in america. the following -- when the president was elected as the president six years ago, many hoped his presidency new day on the issue of race. in last week's writing and looting, some wonder if the country has made much progress. there are those who seem to take positions based on race. we were get your causing but ent in just a moment, following the news of not to indict the officer that oof a ed in the death black male.

the president had this to say. [video clip] >> too many americans feel deep unfairness when it comes to the how between our ideals and laws are applied on a day-to-day basis. [applause] before i came here, i had a chance to speak with mayor for asio aand commend him how new yorkers have been protests, n peaceful and being constructive. he was just in the white house with us on monday as we started to take some concrete steps to strengthen the relationship between law enforcement and communities of color. but, tthe on the specific issue to be addressed --

that people have confidence, that police and law enforcement and prosecutors are serving everybody equally -- there is the larger question of restoring a sense of common purpose. at the heart of the american ideal is the sense in it together -- nobody is guaranteed success, but everybody has access tto the possibility of success. are willing to sure our just to make own children have pathways to success, but that everybody does. everybody me level, is our kid. everybody is our responsibility. spoke at an esident event, aand use the occasion to

talk about the situation in ferguson, missouri and in new york city. steve is this tweet from harrison saying -- riots in the unpopular war, racism -- we have gone back to the 1960's. some breaking news on the front of the "newyork times" dealing with the failed rescue mission in yemen. two hostages were killed as the u.s. rescue efforts failed.

they were apparently on a 6 mile hike, but a barking dog alerted the al qaeda members. on al qaeda news militants, a senior commander and er militant killed in a drone strike in pakistan earlier today. the strike coming after a top an said they killed afghan commander, who was that foiled plot to bomb a u.s. subway. the drone fired twos missiles and had the compound where they were hiding. morning from nbcnews.com. let's get to your cause and comments on race relations in america. have they improved? connie on the democrats line, good morning. caller: thank you. no, i would say definitely not.

race relations have not improved. that we are obvious revisiting the climate of the 1960's. i would say that, with all of these killings, the shootings, of this excessive force by it is officers -- to me, it is ic that -- that -- a backlash of symbolic white rage backlash. when they shoot and kill black for no unarmed -- apparent reason, it is a symbol of the killing of president obama. a certain segment of society and will never accept mr. obama or any black man as president. and this is their way of expressing their rage. it is a tragic situation. i would hope that we could come

the table with some -- with some sort of amenable resolution to come together. because we must live in this country together. nobody is going anywhere. and nobody is better than the other. and use any ut around for st facts their convenience, to make any justify just e to this random at large, in the community killing is crazy. host: connie, thank you. we go to derek and next in austin, texas. also on the democrats line. caller: good morning. i do not believe race relations improved under this president. i do not think they have changed. the fact that this black man has become president has taken

the lid off the racism that has always existed. some people in america now are do ide themselves because we have a strong, intelligent black man as president. he is a president for all americans, not for black america. elected to improve race relations. just going to re change -- they need to be changed, but i don't see them changing. and this president cannot make them change. much okay, thank you very for the call. this from a twitter page saying our criminal justice system exposes unequal treatment and discriminatory laws and policing policies that we live with. our phone lines are open. on our facebook page, there is this.

certainly that it doesn't help when his appointed leaders are playing the game as well. jackie says, no, the country is more divided than before. scott is saying it is like the 1960's all over again. and then he says, oh, hell no. not even close. the blacks are beating our children to death now. poll based on african-americans, who think that race relations have gotten worse since 2009. piece is available online at nationalreview.com. fewer saying that blacks and whites get along better today than they did in 2009. new according to a research ctr., poll. the number of respondents who and whites get s along pretty well increased sevepe